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 Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 3:04 pm
My horse, Ruby, choked YET AGAIN (This about the 6th time she's choked.) about a week ago.
I was in school at the time.
I guess she choked on her breakfast, and she tripped over at the water trough, and was being kicked by two (jackass) horses. (It's mother and daughter. Kept together their whole life, never separated EVER. (The filly is full grown. She hates EVERYONE and on multiple ocassions I have thought that she was going to kill me. She basically pinned me in a corner with barred teeth and I was forced to kick her in the chest as hard as I could if I didn't want to lose my face.)
ANYWAY.
Our vet totally freaked out and said that if we didn't take her to the hospital in Gainsville, she was going to die. We DID NOT take her to the hospital, because we cannot afford to pay 5,000 dollars just to be told that there's nothing they can do. OR to be told that she'll be fine on antibiotics.
So, we didn't take her.
The vet spazzed at that.
She has Ruby on FOUR different antibiotics, some anti-inflamatory pills, and some other thing that I don't know what it does.
She is also SUPPOSEDLY supposed to be on an IV thing. (All of this, completely necessary as stated by the vet.)
However, the vet was not going to be in town, and she called some other vet without consulting with us, to tell her to give Ruby the IV drug.
Said vet does not show the next day.
Our regular vet calls us, says that "the replacement vet tried to get a hold of you. But you didn't try to contact her."
I'm sorry, but we DID try to contact her, on multiple occasions! No return call.
So, Ruby is absolutely fine. Back to normal in a day. We have her on completely soup food, mixing in the crap load of medicine we have to give her.
Then she starts refusing to eat. (Obviously! The stuff tastes like poop.) We've been mixing in about 3 cups of molassus, and still, she doesn't touch it.
So we have to force it down her throat as if we're worming her. (Which she hates of course.)
So anyways.
Have any of you had to deal with constant choking horses? It's extremely annoying, yet unavoidable once they've choked once.
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Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 3:41 pm
First the choke:
After your horse gets done with this course of antibiotics and whatnot keep feeding her wet/soupy feed. Don't ever take her off it. Choke is a vicious cycle, the more she chokes the more prone she'll become to choking. So soupy feed for forever. The anti-inflamatories will help the mare's throat, but I don't know that the antibiotics the vet has her on will actually do anything to prevent choke. Why did the vet say she needed them? What's their purpose?
Second the attacking:
I'd separate them if possible or just pull out the evil tempered one. Them attacking her like that is where the huge vet bills will come from. As for the mare who keeps pinning you in the corner, I'd go out there with a lounge whip every time and beat the ever-living crap out of her if she tries that again. She could kill you so don't put up with that kind of behaviour.
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Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:40 pm
My cousins have a horse that will choke on his feed if they don't turn it into a soup. I had fed him one evening and had put in slightly less water than he needs. It was a very small amount that I left out, but of course, the poor guy choked, The vets weren't able to make it out there that night, so I hardly slept that night worrying about him. But in the morning he was just fine and had managed to swallow the obstructing bolus that night. It has happened to him several times before, and he usually managed to get through it without a lot of help. His owners hadn't been too worried through the whole thing.
I would think that the anitbiotics are there in case Ruby might develop some infection in her lungs. Because the horse can't swallow, the saliva comes out the nose or manages to get down the trachea and into the lungs which can be the beginning of a nasty infection.
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Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 8:53 pm
Horses seem to be able to get over choke on their own, most of the time. It doesn't hurt to keep an eye on them. Massage the throat or a hot compress on the throat to help relax the muscles are good ways to deal with it, if the horse will allow it. If the horse doesn't get over it within 30 min- 1 hr then I call the vet. Franciselle I would think that the anitbiotics are there in case Ruby might develop some infection in her lungs. Because the horse can't swallow, the saliva comes out the nose or manages to get down the trachea and into the lungs which can be the beginning of a nasty infection. That makes sense, I didn't even think about that. Thanks.
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Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 9:41 pm
I'll add another vote to the nothing but soupy feed thing. Also, I can't think that choke that is reoccurring with this frequency is normal. Yes, once a horse chokes they're more prone to it because of the scar tissue, but Ruby has been choking a LOT lately (as I'm sure you're aware. If you can afford it, I would consider getting a specialist to come in and scope her or do something to try to figure out why, despite preventative measures, she is continuing to choke.
And I'm going to second separating her from the other mares. If they're that bad, it's a liability for the barn owner to have them out with boarder horses. If they were to seriously injure your horse and rack up a big vet bill, and they knew that they had expressed violent behavior toward her and not done anything about it, you could sue them. If YOU get hurt while out there with them, your health insurance company WILL sue them to cover any of your medical bills. You won't have a say in the matter. That's why liability releases are SO important, just telling someone "I won't sue you" isn't good enough, because you can't speak for your insurance company. However, if the company can prove that the owners knew that the horses were dangerous and didn't do anything, then that's neglect on their part and they will be liable, release or no. (some of the terminology in that might be off... business classes were 2+ years ago!)
So, in short, if your horse is turned out with other horses that are harming her, you have every right to demand that she be separated from them. YOU are the client, and you need to look out for Ruby's welfare.
Personally, because of the scarring effects of choke, I always treat it as a medical emergency. It is true that many horses resolve on their own, but the scarring can be worsened as they try to move the bolus on their own. That's just my personal opinion, though, not saying there's anything wrong with the way other people are caring for their horses.
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Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 10:05 am
A quick note on the attacking, how often are these horses handled? If they are not your's, I would stay away from them. But if they are, separate them to where they can see each other but have a fence between them.
*Also, I had a horse who was a nasty jerk about biting at people and horses, knew how to throw off riders without rearing/kicking (would slam you into a fence, run under tree limbs, do sudden turns without warning), would rear when tacked up to have the saddle slide off. He was just mean. He tried to bite the vet and she grabbed his lead line and jerked it down several times, growling "no," while running him backwards. And he never tried anything with her again. I followed the example, and he is perfect now. Ground manners lead to other manners. (the horse in this was Skeeter)
As for the choking... my oldest horse, Peaches, chokes a lot. So we started soaking her feed and feeding her in ground pans so it was more like grazing, and the food was softer. She has not choked again on this. My sister skipped the soaking once, and the ground pans another time (used one that hangs up on the fence), and both times Peaches choked. We rubbed her throat to help break it up and let her cough it out, kept water there in case she needed it. So now she stays on the ground pan feeding of soaked food. Its great.
And your vet sounds very unprofessional and inexperienced. My vet finds the minimal things needed, and only the needed things, and fights taking a horse to the clinic because of the added stress to the horse, and the cost to the owner. They also call until they reach someone, and show up when wanted. If they can't, they tell us. Any other vet is doing their job, in some way, wrong. We owners have enough expenses to deal with without the massive vet bills. The vet should understand and support this.
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Posted: Sat May 21, 2011 8:03 pm
iHorsetamer My horse, Ruby, choked YET AGAIN (This about the 6th time she's choked.) about a week ago. I was in school at the time. I guess she choked on her breakfast, and she tripped over at the water trough, and was being kicked by two (jackass) horses. (It's mother and daughter. Kept together their whole life, never separated EVER. (The filly is full grown. She hates EVERYONE and on multiple ocassions I have thought that she was going to kill me. She basically pinned me in a corner with barred teeth and I was forced to kick her in the chest as hard as I could if I didn't want to lose my face.) ANYWAY. Our vet totally freaked out and said that if we didn't take her to the hospital in Gainsville, she was going to die. We DID NOT take her to the hospital, because we cannot afford to pay 5,000 dollars just to be told that there's nothing they can do. OR to be told that she'll be fine on antibiotics. So, we didn't take her. The vet spazzed at that. She has Ruby on FOUR different antibiotics, some anti-inflamatory pills, and some other thing that I don't know what it does. She is also SUPPOSEDLY supposed to be on an IV thing. (All of this, completely necessary as stated by the vet.) However, the vet was not going to be in town, and she called some other vet without consulting with us, to tell her to give Ruby the IV drug. Said vet does not show the next day. Our regular vet calls us, says that "the replacement vet tried to get a hold of you. But you didn't try to contact her." I'm sorry, but we DID try to contact her, on multiple occasions! No return call. So, Ruby is absolutely fine. Back to normal in a day. We have her on completely soup food, mixing in the crap load of medicine we have to give her. Then she starts refusing to eat. (Obviously! The stuff tastes like poop.) We've been mixing in about 3 cups of molassus, and still, she doesn't touch it. So we have to force it down her throat as if we're worming her. (Which she hates of course.) So anyways. Have any of you had to deal with constant choking horses? It's extremely annoying, yet unavoidable once they've choked once. i remember my grandpa had an old shetland pony. the vet said he had to be over 50 cuz no teeth left!!! he started choking at this point so what we did was take alpha pellets, soaked them over night in water til they were mush. little prince out lived my grandpa and was fat and sassy although a little death and senile in the end
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